THE BRAND MARKETER’S GUIDE TO
IN-IMAGE ADVERTISING
Contents 3
INTRODUCTION IMAGE RECOGNITION
Computer Vision Semantic Analysis 4 Human Classification
TYPES OF IN-IMAGE ADVERTISING Display Overlays Embedded Links 5
CONSIDERATIONS FOR ADVERTISERS
6
Targeting Ad Serving User Experience Creative Image Rights Measurement Viewability Mobile Performance Scale
6 7 8
9
CONCLUSION 10
ABOUT
The Brand Marketer’s Guide to In-Image Advertising
INTRODUCTION This white paper provides brands and the agency community with a basic overview of in-image advertising and how it can be used to reach their objectives. Traditional display advertising has remained static for several years, while its performance has steadily declined. With the exception of the IAB’s Rising Stars initiative, banner ad creative had not been updated since 2003. Still, relatively few alternatives exist to combat low engagement rates and what is commonly referred to as “banner blindness.”
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Programmatic buying breathed new life into the display ecosystem, but it has done little to improve the results of advertisers with awareness objectives or to bolster the CPMs of premium content publishers. While the creative community is generally supportive of new, more dynamic formats, they are meaningless to brands without also having delivery at scale. Enter in-image advertising. Displaying contextually-relevant ads on images where a viewer’s attention is focused, has had a profound impact on engagement. Not only are in-image ads seen more often due to their placement within editorial content, consumer engagement is significantly higher, yielding a meaningful lift in brand metrics and click-through rates five to seven times higher than standard banner ads. Turning images into advertising inventory represents an exciting channel for advertisers and a new form of monetization for publishers. But why now? Why did it take more than 15 years into the advent of the commercial web for a format seemingly so obvious to emerge? The answer lies primarily in technology. Understanding the meaning of images so they can be classified for ad targeting is only one such feat. Another technical challenge is accurately displaying ads on photos of varied sizes, and the dynamic inventory source they represent since photos are constantly being added to publishers’ pages.
There are more than five trillion images online.
Ad x
The EOS 5D Mark III And it’s innovative low light system with ISO range of 100-25600 and Full HD video. Click to see it all.
An in-image ad for Canon appears on the tablet edition of NYDailyNews.com.
Also noteworthy is the explosion of images and the rise of the “visual web.” By some estimates, there are more than five trillion images online, with more than 300 million new ones uploaded daily on Facebook alone. While not all photos are suitable for advertising, the sheer volume of available images makes those that are contextually relevant and “brand safe” a scalable opportunity for marketers.
KEY TAKEAWAY 1
The explosion of images online and the emergence of image-based technologies have combined to turn photos into premium inventory, creating a scalable display advertising channel for brands.
The Brand Marketer’s Guide to In-Image Advertising
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IMAGE RECOGNITION Image-based ad targeting relies primarily on understanding what images are about. The meaning of images can be identified in a number of different ways, including computer vision, semantic analysis and human classification.
Computer Vision One of the most difficult challenges in computer science is determining what images are about. For purposes of in-image advertising, programmatic image recognition has so far been geared toward identifying automobiles, skin detection and facial recognition.
Semantic Analysis Information about photos can be identified through meta data, file names and information entered by the photographer. In addition, semantic analysis of the page content is useful in determining what an image is about for the purpose of contextual targeting.
Computer vision technology recognizes what images are about, in this case identifying automobiles contained within the photo.
Human Classification While not as scalable as the programmatic approaches outlined above, having people review and enter information about the meaning of images is a highly accurate approach to image recognition.
TYPES OF IN-IMAGE ADVERTISING In-image ads can be served as display overlays or embedded links. Both use different approaches to provide the most relevant and engaging user experience.
Display Overlay Display overlays offer the ability to serve a relevant ad during the time a viewer’s attention is actively focused on an image. Each in-image ad is designed to dynamically conform to the width of the photo over which it appears. Viewers can easily close the ad to reveal the entire photo.
Ad x
Upon engaging with the creative, users are directed to an advertiser’s website, or a light box can be overlaid to deliver a video and other rich media content without leaving the page. Paramount Pictures targeted entertainment sites and images of Katy Perry to promote her "Part of Me" biopic.
The Brand Marketer’s Guide to In-Image Advertising
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Embedded Links The ability to identify and categorize photos has created new opportunities to share images and to make them "shoppable." Embedded links within images can convey more information about a photo and send audiences directly to a marketer's site as part of an affiliate marketing program or an ad buy designed to drive traffic and sales.
KEY TAKEAWAY 2
In-image advertising is device agnostic, working responsively across desktop, tablet and mobile devices.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR ADVERTISERS As with any new advertising format, there are several components marketers need to understand before making a decision about whether to invest in in-image advertising: How does it fit within my existing media and creative strategies? What are the targeting options? Where will my ads appear? How well will it perform for my brand? Does it scale? The following sections address how these questions are being answered by in-image advertising providers.
One form of image-based advertising is embedded links that lead a viewer to more information about the photo or to purchase a pictured item.
Targeting Once the meaning of an image has been identified, it is broken down to a keyword level and classified by category, at which point it becomes eligible for ad targeting. The primary forms of image-based contextual ad targeting include: 1 Keywords – Targeting images at a keyword level creates a highly relevant user experience. This can take the form of “conquesting” competitor names or a company’s own trade names, the names of celebrities in a film or any keyword associated with a campaign. 2 Categories – Targeting images at a category or channel level creates additional scale from which to reach an intended audience. Campaign optimization is used to drive comparable performance to keyword-based targeting strategies.
The Brand Marketer’s Guide to In-Image Advertising
Ad x
This Scion ad appearing on images of Honda vehicles is an example of keyword targeting, or "conquesting" a competitor's images.
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3 Seasonal/Events – In-image advertising is well-suited for seasonality, such as back-to-school and winter holidays, and live television programming, like major sporting events and entertainment awards. Similar to “appointment viewing” on television, brands can attach their ads to images when consumers are more receptive to relevant advertising in the days leading up to and following a broadcast.
GumGum Platform Entertainment Channel Lifestyle Channel
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Image impressions on the GumGum platform grew steadily in the seven days prior to the Academy Awards in 2012 and spiked on the day immediately following the telecast.
ABC promoted its “Morning After Oscar Party” by targeting images of nominated actors and red carpet photos.
4 Audience – Additional segmentation capabilities include the ability to overlay demographic, psychographic and geo-targeting parameters to further identify and engage a brand's intended target audience.
Ad Serving Due to the complexity involved in displaying ads on images, the ad serving itself is handled directly by in-image providers, however third-party ad server tags may be used for tracking and reporting purposes. As the market matures, third-party rich media ad servers may be capable of delivering in-image creative across multiple platforms.
User Experience The ability to target ads according to the meaning of the photos over which they appear makes in-image advertising more relevant for consumers, most of whom report finding them “polite” and additive to their viewing experience. Because of their high degree of relevance to the content being consumed, in-image ads could also be considered a form of “native advertising.”
KEY TAKEAWAY 3
Display ads overlaid on contextually relevant images where a visitor's attention is actively engaged eliminates "banner blindness" and drives 700% higher engagement rates than standard banner ads.
The Brand Marketer’s Guide to In-Image Advertising
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Creative The most common forms of in-image ads are Flash or HTML5 animated units that call a user’s attention to the creative as they are viewing a photo. In-image ads scale to fit the exact size of any image using a technique known as "tiling,” which accounts for varying image sizes by creating a maximum area for artwork and text. The remaining surface area of an ad is filled with solid colors or patterns that responsively conform to the creative regardless of the size of the image over which it appears. As the IAB has yet to define standards around image-based display advertising, GumGum has created several sizes and specifications for its platform, which it invites the industry to adopt as the in-image advertising market matures.
Ad x
Ad x
PREMIUM IN-IMAGE ADVERTISING
x
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This example demonstrates the maximum area allowed for artwork and text (250x100px) within GumGum’s Runway unit.
Engagement with this UGG for Men in-image ad opens a video light box overlay to reveal the brand's 30-second spot and links to its official site and social channels.
The Canvas image takeover displays a five-second rich media ad before concluding as a Runway unit across the bottom portion of the image.
The Brand Marketer’s Guide to In-Image Advertising
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Image Rights Publishers who choose to work with an in-image advertising provider may only do so with images they own or have properly licensed and have the right to monetize through the use of advertising. An in-image ad does not affect the image content in any material way and can be easily closed by the user to see the original unobstructed photo.
Measurement In-image advertising is no different from measuring standard display, and can be easily integrated into the reporting features of a marketer’s ad serving system.
50
Awareness
40
44.1%
30 In addition to measuring impressions and click-through rates, when a video light box is deployed upon a click, video views, engagement time, completion rates and click rates from the video overlay are also measured. It is also possible to use common pixel tracking methods to measure conversions. Because in-image advertising is well-suited for branding objectives, third-party research studies are often deployed. Using an exposed/unexposed methodology allows advertisers to determine lift in key brand metrics (awareness, purchase intent, message recall, etc.) among consumers exposed to the campaign, as opposed to those who are part of the control group.
20 10
36%
22.4% LIFT Control
Exposed
An in-image campaign for a major television network drove a 22.4% lift in awareness of a new comedy series among those exposed at the optimal frequency of 3-4 exposures.
KEY TAKEAWAY 4
In-image advertising is best suited for brand objectives, and is proven to drive up to 22.4% lift in awareness.
Viewability According to comScore, 54 percent of all display ad impressions are not viewable! At a time when advertisers are rightfully demanding to pay only for ad impressions that have the opportunity to be seen, in-image advertising is a meaningful alternative to standard display units, which are prone to what is commonly referred to as “banner blindness.” In addition to in-image ads being seen based on their placement within editorial content, because the creative only serves when a photo is within the browser’s visible window, in-image ads have a far higher likelihood of meeting the IAB standard of viewability than those delivered below the fold as part of a network or an exchange buy.
KEY TAKEAWAY 5
The "viewability" of in-image ads is far higher than standard display units because they appear in-line with editorial content and only load when a photo is within the browser window.
The Brand Marketer’s Guide to In-Image Advertising
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Mobile Because in-image advertising is targeted to individual photos, whether they are served on a mobile device or a desktop browser makes no difference. Currently, more than one quarter of all in-image impressions across the GumGum platform are delivered on mobile web browsers, and mobile engagement rates are slightly higher than their desktop counterparts. As the mobile market matures and screen sizes and attention spans continue to diminish, image-based advertising will become a more prevalent alternative to traditional display ads.
Performance Results across the GumGum in-image advertising platform consistently outperform standard banner ad placements by approximately 700 percent, with CTRs ranging from .3 to .5 percent. Video completion rates following the initial engagement average 66 percent, with an additional 1.8 percent CTR from the video lightbox to an advertiser’s official website or social media pages. Perhaps more important to advertisers is the ability for in-image advertising to impact key brand metrics. Research conducted by Vizu on several campaigns has consistently resulted in meaningful lift in awareness and purchase intent, as indicated in data outlined below from a recent consumer electronics campaign. Purchase Intent
8
Awareness 10
7
9.6%
8 6
6
5.9%
6.7%
4 4
3 2 1
In-image is well-suited to mobile because the ads are specific to individual photos, irrespective of what device a consumer is using to browse.
6.7%
5
Ad x
12.1% LIFT
0
Control
Exposed
A Vizu study for an electronics manufacturer found in-image ads lifted purchase intent by 32% in the weeks prior to Christmas and 12.1% overall.
42% LIFT
2
0
Control
Exposed
A consumer electronics campaign generated an overall lift in unaided brand recall of 42%.
Scale Of critical importance to marketers evaluating any new advertising solution is the ability to easily reach a large portion of their audience. Scalable media opportunities for in-image advertising currently exist solely with in-image advertising platforms whose image recognition and ad serving code is integrated within the pages of thousands of photo-rich content publishers. The largest image-based advertising platforms tracked by comScore reach around 60 million unique visitors per month.
The Brand Marketer’s Guide to In-Image Advertising
The largest image-based ad platforms reach 60 million unique visitors per month.
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CONCLUSION Excitement around the in-image format exists because it represents a true innovation in display advertising. The ability to monetize images, which were until now a blind spot for advertisers, is a technical feat that represents potentially billions of dollars to publishers and a lasting opportunity to drive relevant consumer engagement for brands. The ability to deliver contextually oriented rich media ad units in-line with editorial content, where a consumer’s attention is actively engaged, is a win for each of the stakeholders: advertisers see higher engagement and lift in brand metrics; publishers have access to a revenue stream that was previously unavailable to them; and consumers receive ads that are relevant to their image viewing experience, with the option to close them if they choose. As a burgeoning segment of the display marketplace, there are still questions to be answered, assumptions to be validated and technologies that will be improved upon in the months and years ahead. Research and education on image-based advertising is actively underway by solution providers, through the work of governing bodies like the IAB and real-world market testing by brands and agencies with a stake in solving critical issues like viewability and brand engagement.
ABOUT
GumGum GumGum invented the image-based advertising category in 2008 and has since grown to become the largest premium in-image advertising platform for publishers and brands. Based on its patented image recognition and contextual targeting technologies, GumGum overlays rich media display advertising units across the lower portion of relevant photos, in-line with editorial content where a user’s attention is actively engaged. Reaching 60 million unique visitors across billions of images on hundreds of premium websites, GumGum connects brands to the relevant images for their campaigns with targeting on a category or keyword basis. The result is engagement rates and brand lift more than seven times those of standard display units. In addition to helping advertisers reach targeted audiences at scale in a brand-safe environment, GumGum gives publishers a new way to monetize images while maintaining a quality user experience. GumGum is headquartered in Santa Monica, California and has offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Detroit. The company is privately held and its investors include NEA, GRP Partners, First Round Capital and Crosscut Ventures.
For more information, visit GumGum.com or call (310) 260-9666.
Authors Ophir Tanz - Technology entrepreneur Ophir Tanz is the founder and CEO of GumGum and is credited with developing the world's first in-image advertising platform. Prior to launching GumGum in 2007, he was the CEO of Mojungle.com, a mobile media sharing platform that sold to Shozu.com in 2007. Before this, he co-founded and sold Fluidesign, an award-winning interactive agency. Tony Winders - GumGum senior vice president of marketing, Tony Winders, is a longtime digital marketing expert and has served as vice president of marketing at ValueClick Media and vice president of sales and marketing at Search123. In 1995, he co-founded iAgency, one of the first interactive marketing agencies in the world.
© Copyright 2013, GumGum, Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks of their respective companies.
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